I will briefly explain the program.  The program is GEPIK, but the particular branch through UW is TTG, Teachers to Gyeonggi-do.  Whenever I mention other teachers, I’m talking about my fellow TTGers, my recent fellow grads from Madison.  I’ve already become friends with a lot of them.  A good number of us are stationed in the Yeoju area, but as we have discovered, that’s quite a large range.

Now onto the adventure!  First, the plane ride was all right.  Fourteen hours, the usual drill.  Nobody really cares about this part.  Here’s a picture of our plane for posterity’s sake:

After landing in Korea, we went through customs, got our baggage, exchanged money, and then were met by our co-teachers.  I was met by the English teacher at my school, Miss Yun.  She’s very nice and speaks really good English.  The school’s vice-principal was also there and he drove us back to Yeoju.  Either he speaks no English or wasn’t comfortable enough with it to talk to me.  Unfortuantely, we missed a turn and ended up in Seoul.  At rush hour.  So it took much longer than expected.  On the way Miss Yun asked if I was hungry, and I said I was, so she said she had some chocolate she had gotten in Seattle.  I allowed myself to get a little excited because she actually got it in America!  She handed me a few pieces, and when I saw the wrapper, it said “Sugarless chocolate calcium.”  It was a bit of a downer.  It tasted like chocolate-flavored taffy, but it was all right and I was quite hungry.

It was quite late when we first arrived in Yeoju, so I didn’t see much of it that night.  I’m not in the heart of downtown, but rather in a district next to it, straight down the main street from it.  Buses are both easy to ride and cheap so getting downtown isn’t a problem.  Two of the other teachers from Madison also live in my small apartment complex, Molly and Robyn, so we hang during the week.

The apartment is very small; more like a glorified dorm room.  It’s also quite nice and comfortable, so for one person it’s a great apartment.  Here is a tour:

Here is my kitchen.  It’s what you walk into when you first enter.  The fridge is elsewhere.  In Korea, it’s traditional to take your shoes off when entering a building, so I also have a small step where shoes get left.

Here is my … main room.  Bedroom, eating area, living area, work area, all in one!  What a space saver!  My closet/drawer set is the large dark thing off to the side.

Here’s the part hidden by my closet, mostly just the television:

Here is the laundry/fridge room.  Wet clothes hang up in front of the window.